Embracer Group Is Acquiring IP Rights To The Lord Of The Rings And The Hobbit
Embracer Group is in the process of buying Middle-earth Enterprises that will give the Swedish conglomerate the intellectual property rights to J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
While the print publication rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's literary works will remain with the heirs and estates of J.R.R. Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers, the acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, which is a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, will provide Embracer Group a host of IP rights.
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This includes worldwide rights to movies, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks, and stage productions related to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There's already mention of a possible standalone Gandalf movie (seriously).
"I am truly excited to have The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, one of the world's most epic fantasy franchises join the Embracer family, opening up more transmedia opportunities including synergies across our global group," said Lars Wingefors, founder and group CEO of Embracer Group.
"Going forward, we also look forward to collaborating with both existing and new external licensees of our increasingly stronger IP portfolio," he said.
Embracer Group has seemingly been buying up video game publishers and studios left, right, and centre, and in addition to buying Middle-earth Enterprises, it also announced it is acquiring Killing Floor studio Tripwire Interactive, Limited Run Games, and Teardown dev Tuxedo Labs, and more today, in deals that are worth in total SEK 8.2 billion (around $770 million).
It's a major deal because since 1976 the likes of Peter Jackson and Warner Bros. have only bought the
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